Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
participated in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Oslo, Norway, following the country's victory at the with the song "Fairytale (Alexander Rybak song), Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak. Organise ...
with the song "
Drip Drop" written by
Anders Bagge
Sven Anders Bagge (; born 16 January 1968) is a Swedish composer, lyricist, musician and record producer and partner with Peer Åström. The two songwriters / producers are known as Bagge & Peer. Bagge is also one of jury members for the TV4 sin ...
,
Stefan Örn
Stefan Örn ( Gällstads församling, Älvsborgs län, 9 January 1975) is a Swedish music composer, guitarist and street fighter. He is a member of the band Apollo Drive.
He was one of the composers of the songs which represented Azerbaijan in ...
and Sandra Bjurman. The song was performed by
Safura. The Azerbaijani Eurovision entrant for the 2010 contest in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
, Norway was selected through ''Land of Fire 2010'', organised by the Azerbaijani broadcaster
İctimai Television
İctimai Television ( , “Public Television”), or İTV, is a public television channel in Azerbaijan. It officially began broadcasting on 29 August 2005 after being created by law in the beginning of 2004, as the first independent public bro ...
(İTV). Following a semi-final and a final on 2 February and 2 March 2010, respectively, a seven-member jury selected Safura as the winner. The song "Drip Drop" was internally selected and presented to the public on 18 March.
Azerbaijan was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 27 May 2010. Performing during the show in position 7, "Drip Drop" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 29 May. It was later revealed that Azerbaijan placed second out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 113 points. In the final, Azerbaijan performed in position 1 and placed fifth out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 145 points.
Background
Prior to the 2010 contest, Azerbaijan had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest two times since its first entry in . In 2008 and 2009, Azerbaijan qualified to the final on both occasions and placed in the top ten, including a third-place result in
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
with the song "
Always
Always may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Always'', a 1985 film directed by Henry Jaglom
* ''Always'' (1989 film), a 1989 romantic comedy-drama directed by Steven Spielberg
* ''Always'' (2011 film), a 2011 South Korean film, also known as '' ...
" performed by
AySel and
Arash
Arash the Archer ( fa, آرش کمانگیر ''Āraš-e Kamāngīr'') is a heroic archer-figure of Iranian mythology.
According to Iranian folklore, the boundary between Iran and Turan was set by an arrow launched by Arash, after he put his own ...
. The Azerbaijani national broadcaster,
İctimai Television
İctimai Television ( , “Public Television”), or İTV, is a public television channel in Azerbaijan. It officially began broadcasting on 29 August 2005 after being created by law in the beginning of 2004, as the first independent public bro ...
(İTV), broadcasts the event within Azerbaijan and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. İTV confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest on 1 June 2009.
In 2008, Azerbaijan organized a national final titled ''Land of Fire'', which resulted in the selection of a winning performer that would subsequently be given an internally selected song to perform at Eurovision, while in 2009, the broadcaster internally selected both the artist and song that represented Azerbaijan. For their 2010 entry, the broadcaster opted to organise the ''Land of Fire'' national final.
Before Eurovision
Land of Fire 2010
''Land of Fire 2010'' was the national final organised by İTV that selected the Azerbaijani contestant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The competition consisted of two shows concluded with a winning artist on 2 March 2010. The two shows took place at the
Buta Palace
The Buta Palace is one of the principal performing arts centers and music venues of Baku.
Facilities
It consists of two event halls and adjacent parking lot for 800 cars. The greater hall is a caravanserai-stylized venue, capable of accommodati ...
in
Baku
Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
and hosted by
Husniya Maharramova and Ilham Gasimov. Both shows were broadcast on İTV and streamed online via the broadcaster's website ''itv.az''. The competition was also broadcast in Turkey on
TRT Avaz
TRT Avaz is a channel broadcast by the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation with focusing on Turkey and Balkans. It was launched in Turkey on March 21, 2009 and broadcasts throughout the Balkans, Turkic Central Asia, the Middle East, and the C ...
and in Georgia on
GPB.
Format
The national final consisted of two stages. The first stage involved an audition period where interested artists had the opportunity to apply for the competition. Six artists were selected and advanced to the second stage, the televised shows. Two introductory shows were broadcast on 15 and 23 January 2010 where the six artists were presented.
Two shows including a semi-final on 2 February 2010 selected the artists (who each performed an original song) that would advance to the final on 2 March 2010. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining artists who each performed three candidate Eurovision songs.
The results of both shows were determined by the votes of a seven-member jury panel.
The members of the jury were:
* Ismail Omarov – General Director of İTV
*
Farhad Badalbeyli
Farhad Shamsi oghlu Badalbeyli ( az, Fərhad Şəmsi oğlu Bədəlbəyli; born 1947) is an Azerbaijani pianist and composer. He was awarded the title, People's Artists of the Azerbaijan SSR (1978), the People's Artist of the USSR (1990), and lau ...
– Rector of the
Baku Academy of Music
The Hajibeyov Baku Academy of Music (Azeri: ''Hacıbəyov adına Bakı Musiqi Akademiyası'') is a music school in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was established in 1920 in Baku and was previously known as the Hajibeyov Azerbaijan State Conservatoire.
H ...
* Murad Adigozelzade – Director of the
Azerbaijan State Academic Philharmonic Hall
The Muslim Magomayev Azerbaijan State Academic Philharmonic Hall ( az, Müslüm Maqomayev adına Azərbaycan Dövlət Akademik Filarmoniyası), located in Baku, is the main concert hall in Azerbaijan built in 1910. Since 2006 Murad Adigozalzade ...
* Lala Kazimova – President of the National Music Committee of Azerbaijan
* Azad Aliyev – conductor
* Manzar Nuraliyeva – representative of the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan
*
Farhad Hajiyev
Farhad Majid oghlu Hajiyev ( az, Fərhad Məcid oğlu Hacıyev, 1980, Sumgait) is the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan Republic.
Biography
Farhad Hajiyev was born in 1980 in Sumgait. He received a bachelor's degree in Inter ...
– representative of the
Ministry of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan
Competing entries
On 1 June 2009, İTV called for interested artists to submit their applications to the broadcaster by 30 September 2009. Eligible artists were those that were citizens of Azerbaijan or part of the Azerbaijani diaspora. Artists were required to submit cover versions of two songs along with their application: one ballad and one uptempo song.
On 6 January 2010, the six artists selected for the competition from over 30 applications based on the decision of İTV and a group of local and international experts based on criteria such as vocal, dance and foreign language abilities were announced.
On 3 February 2010, the broadcaster called for interested songwriters to submit their entries by 20 February 2010. Songwriters could be of any nationality. Five candidate Eurovision songs were selected from submissions from local and international songwriters and announced on 2 March 2010. One of the songs, "Don't Let the Morning Come", was later withdrawn and therefore was not performed during the final.
Shows
Semi-final
The semi-final took place on 2 February 2010 where the six artists each performed an original song. The jury selected three of the artists to advance to the final.
In addition to the performances of the artists, Ukrainian
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following the country's victory at the with the song "Everyway That I Can" by Sertab Erener. Organised by the European Broa ...
winner
Ruslana
Ruslana Stepanivna Lyzhychko ( uk, Руслана Степанівна Лижичко, ''Ruslana Lyzhychko''; born 24 May 1973), known mononymously as Ruslana, is a World Music Award and Eurovision Song Contest winning recording artist, holdi ...
, Norwegian
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Believe" by Dima Bilan. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (E ...
winner
Alexander Rybak
Alexander Igorevich Rybak (russian: Александр Игоревич Рыбак) or Alyaxandr Iharavich Rybak ( be, Аляксандр Ігаравіч Рыбак; born 13 May 1986) is a Belarusian-Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pian ...
and
2009 Azerbaijani Eurovision entrant AySel and
Arash
Arash the Archer ( fa, آرش کمانگیر ''Āraš-e Kamāngīr'') is a heroic archer-figure of Iranian mythology.
According to Iranian folklore, the boundary between Iran and Turan was set by an arrow launched by Arash, after he put his own ...
performed during the show as guests.
Final
The final took place on 2 March 2010 where the remaining three artists each performed three of the four candidate Eurovision songs.
Safura Alizadeh
Safura Alizadeh Aliyev (born 20 September 1992) is an Azerbaijani pop singer. In 2009, she became the winner of the national contest "Pop Idol" (season 8). In 2010, Safura took part in the Eurovision Song Contest, where she brought Azerbaijan o ...
was selected by the jury as the winner.
In addition to the performances of the artists, AySel and Arash, Belarusian singer Dakota and
2010 Georgian Eurovision entrant Sofia Nizharadze
Sopho "Sofia" Nizharadze ( ka, სოფო ნიჟარაძე, ) is a Georgian singer, actress, and songwriter who represented Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song " Shine". Nizharadze was a judge on the TV shows ''G ...
performed during the show as guests.
Song selection
On 18 March 2010, İTV announced that Safura would be performing the song "
Drip Drop" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010.
The selection of the song was based on the decision of İTV and the seven-member jury panel of ''Land of Fire 2010'' from the three candidate Eurovision songs performed by Safura during the final of the competition.
Promotion
Safura made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Drip Drop" as the Azerbaijani Eurovision entry. On 5 March, Safura performed "Drip Drop" during the first
Ukrainian Eurovision national final. Safura also took part in promotional activities in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Switzerland.
At Eurovision
![Flickr - aktivioslo - Safura - Aserbajdsjan (2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Flickr_-_aktivioslo_-_Safura_-_Aserbajdsjan_%282%29.jpg)
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "
Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The
European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...
(EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 7 February 2010, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Azerbaijan was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 27 May 2010, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. The running order for the semi-finals was decided through another draw on 23 March 2010 and Azerbaijan was set to perform in position 8, following the entry from
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
and before the entry from
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
.
The two semi-finals and final were broadcast in Azerbaijan on
İTV with commentary by Husniye Maharramova. The Azerbaijani spokesperson, who announced the Azerbaijani votes during the final, was Tamilla Shirinova.
Semi-final
![Safura Alizadeh - May 2010 Semifinal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Safura_Alizadeh_-_May_2010_Semifinal.jpg)
Safura took part in technical rehearsals on 19 and 22 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 26 and 27 May. This included the jury show on 26 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.
The Azerbaijani performance featured Safura in a turquoise and blue dress with LED elements that illuminated at the end of the song performing with a dancer and four backing vocalists. Two podiums with LED screens that displayed dripping water were featured on stage, one for Safura and one for the backing vocalists. Safura's podium also included a staircase which illuminated in a turquoise colour as she took each step down simultaneously with the backing vocalists at the beginning of the song. The dancer interacted with Safura during the second verse before the singer walked to the end of the catwalk and returned to the main stage to conclude the performance. The stage backdrop was dark and the lighting transitioned between white, green and blue colours. The performance was choreographed by
JaQuel Knight
JaQuel Knight (born August 6, 1989) is an American choreographer and dancer. Born in North Carolina and raised in Atlanta, he has worked with Beyoncé on many of her most notable dances, including on " Single Ladies", " Formation" and the hist ...
. The dancer that joined Safura on stage was Denis Khrystyuk, while the backing vocalists were Anna Bergenholtz, Johanna Eriksson, Marlene Strand and Samantha Powell.
At the end of the show, Azerbaijan was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Azerbaijan placed second in the semi-final, receiving a total of 113 points.
Final
Shortly after the second semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine the running order for the final. This draw was done in the order the countries were announced during the semi-final. Ukraine was drawn to perform in position 1, before the entry from
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
.
Safura once again took part in dress rehearsals on 28 and 29 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. Safura performed a repeat of her semi-final performance during the final on 29 May. At the conclusion of the voting, Azerbaijan finished in fifth place with 145 points.
Voting
Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.
Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Azerbaijan had placed fifth with the public televote and ninth with the jury vote in the final. In the public vote, Azerbaijan scored 161 points, while with the jury vote, Azerbaijan scored 116 points. In the second semi-final, Azerbaijan placed first with the public televote with 126 points and third with the jury vote, scoring 89 points.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Azerbaijan and awarded by Azerbaijan in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Turkey in the semi-final and the final of the contest.
Points awarded to Azerbaijan
Points awarded by Azerbaijan
References
External links
*
İTV Eurovision websiteSafura Alizade – Participant at Eurovision 2010 from Azerbaijan– Official Web-Site.
Drip Drop – Official Eurovision Song 2010of Azerbaijani participant.
{{Eurovision Song Contest 2010
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
Eurovision